Windows Phone 8 SA pricing showdown

With Nokia launching its Lumia 920 flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphone recently, South Africans now have two devices in Microsoft’s ecosystem to choose from.

The Windows Phone 8X by HTC (or just the HTC 8X) became available in South Africa less than a week before Nokia’s flagship was launched on MTN and Vodacom.

HTC’s offers a thin, lightweight device with a matte back that gives good grip, Beats-enhanced audio and, according to the Taiwanese smartphone maker, the cameras on the 8X received special attention.

Both the front and rear cameras have F2.0 lenses, and HTC boasts about its dedicated ImageChip image signal processor every chance it gets. The 2.1 megapixel (MP) front-facing camera on HTC 8X sports a wide-angle lens, which the Taiwanese smartphone maker said is for fitting more into your self-shots.

While HTC’s challenge to Nokia in the smartphone camera space is not to be sneered at, the Finnish phone maker has not been idle when it comes to imaging technology.

Other hardware features offered by the Lumia 920 include built-in support for wireless charging and pentaband LTE.

According to the Nokia spec sheet, the device supports the 800, 900, 1800, 2100, and 2600MHz Long Term Evolution (LTE) bands.

This bodes well for South African users, as Vodacom and MTN are both rolling out LTE networks on refarmed 1800MHz spectrum, while Cell C has announced plans to trial LTE on 2100MHz.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has also earmarked the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands for mobile broadband.

While both the Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC 8X are available on MTN and Vodacom, both manufacturers expect the other operators to also offer their devices. In particular, Nokia said that it expects Cell C to offer the devices by year-end.

The table below compares the pricing of the Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC 8X on Vodacom and MTN: